New Splinter Cell Conviction Screens [X10]

Sam Fisher may be missing his fancy green goggles in these screens, but you know what? He doesn’t need them. That lovely sweater more than makes up for it.

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New Splinter Cell Conviction Screens [X10]

Splinter Cell: Conviction Multiplayer Preview: Separation Anxiety Times Two [Preview]

The multiplayer in Splinter Cell: Conviction is all at once similar to other Splinter Cell games and somehow entirely different. A lot of this comes from having a second person to look out for at all times. During a gameplay demo, game director Patrick Redding explained that players might recognize “echoes” of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory gameplay. However, the experience is more the result of everything Ubisoft learned from the Splinter Cell series — up to and including that little identity crisis the game suffered between 2007 and 2009. Development on the multiplayer began in that time period, approximately two years ago, and what grew out of it is a story-heavy “prologue” meant to be played by two people cooperatively. From there, the rest of the multiplayer just sort of fell into place. What Is It? Splinter Cell: Conviction is a stealth action game starring Sam Fisher, a National Security Agency operative who may or may not be on the lam in this installment. Fisher doesn’t figure directly into the main multiplayer mode — but two operatives (one from Fisher’s agency and one from its Russian counterpart) engage in about six hours’ worth of black ops work that sets up the story Fisher follows in the main campaign. In total, the game has five multiplayer modes, four of which being separate from the main campaign. You can find out more about Prologue mode by reading on below — but here’s what we know about the special “deniable ops” multiplayer modes: —Hunter is for one to two players to go in and stealth kill everybody they find. —Infiltration is a “pure” stealth mode for one to two players where the second you’re spotted, you lose. —Last Stand is a survival mode where one to two players have to protect a warhead within a level from a group of AI that want to set it off. —Face Off throws out co-op and pits two players against both each other and a lot of hostile AI within a level. What We Saw I teamed up with Jose Sanchez from Electric Playground on a couple of Xbox 360s for my playthrough of the first Prologue level. I think Jose wound up being the Russian while I played the American. On this mission, we were tasked with getting into some facility or another in Siberia (although we were told the campaign isn’t set in Siberia because it’d be “weird” for multiplayer participants to encounter Sam Fisher on their mission) — and making this dude open some sort of door. The whole thing went by in about half an hour for me and Jose — but I think we were doing exceptionally well for noobs. How Far Along Is It? Still sort of early days. The framework is there, but there are some kinks to work out like this one crazy bug that doesn’t let you complete the mission. Also, they apparently were unaware that a placeholder idle animation had been left in the game — so we were treated to a surprise when we came upon idle Russian guards dancing. I hope you’ll write in to Ubisoft and plead with them to leave this in on account of it being hilarious. What Needs Improvement? Sonar Goggles Aren’t Night Vision Goggles: Jose is willing to bet money that Sam Fisher’s trademark night vision goggles with make it into the game, yet. But for now, all anybody has seen (and gets to play with) are these sonar goggles that let you see the gameplay environment I guess the way a dolphin would. I’m not a fan because it turns everything gray. This gives me a false sense of security because when you’re in cover, the world is sort of gray — and when you’re out of cover, everything is in color. So if I’m wearing my goggles, I sometimes forget that that doesn’t mean I’m in cover, and then the Russians shoot at me and oy… Don’t Leave Me!: You do not want to play this game with people who can’t communicate. Often times, you’ll need to coordinate your assassinations or attacks perfectly or else one player will wind up shot to shit while the other player gets stranded in some distant part of the level. For example, there was a choke point on the map where I was supposed to shoot one guard while Jose grabbed the other guard to make him use his keycard to deactivate a security gate. I kind of shot the security guard he was holding and then went through the gate and shot the other guy — which made a bunch of Russians show up to shoot Jose because I was already long gone by the time they got there. I think if Jose had said something ahead of time, none of that would’ve happened — but it also would have been nice for there to be some kind of non-verbal communication in the game reminding me not to be a jerk. SPOILER WARNING Torture Team-Ups: When you get to the guy, you have to beat him up three times to make him cooperate. You can take turns with your partner beating the guy up. This very closely resembles a gang bang and I was pretty uncomfortable — so I let Jose bash the dude’s head into a printer and a desk while I watched the door. END SPOILER WARNING What Should Stay The Same? Complex Concepts: Sure, I’ve played co-op with people before; but always in situations where I knew I could carry them if they turned out to be dead weight. Never have I been in a position where I simply can’t do it without my buddy. And I’m not talking about getting a game over screen when they die — I really mean that the level would be too hard to go it alone. In particular, the mark-sharing mechanism really reinforces the buddy system. Jose would run ahead, climb a little half wall (because I guess they can’t afford real walls in Russia) and mark a bunch of people walking by. I’d wait in a dark corner down the hall and when the marked men got to me, I could activate the quick assassinate mode and then run down the hallway to join Jose. There is also that revival mechanism, but I consider that standard buddy system gameplay. Branching Paths: There are points where you have to go a certain way in the mission we were playing on — but every so often there would be open areas that presented options for how to progress. For example, there was one place where we didn’t have to shoot anybody at all. Jose could go along the ceiling panels and I could cut right and (using his verbal communication) know when the guard in my area was looking elsewhere so I could book it past him without killing him. I wound up doing it anyway, because I accidentally hit the trigger button instead of the slide-into-cover button, but it’s nice to have options. To The Rescue! There’s a cool thing where a bad guy can grab your partner in a choke hold. You’ve got a limited time to reach him and once you do, you have to make the difficult decision about whether or not to shoot the baddie and risk hitting your partner. Or get your partner to throw an elbow and then shoot the baddie as he’s doubled over in pain. Decisions, decisions! Final Thoughts I wish I could’ve followed the plot more assiduously, but I spent way too much time trying not to die.

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Splinter Cell: Conviction Multiplayer Preview: Separation Anxiety Times Two [Preview]

Splinter Cell: Conviction Multiplayer Preview: Separation Anxiety Times Two [Preview]

The multiplayer in Splinter Cell: Conviction is all at once similar to other Splinter Cell games and somehow entirely different. A lot of this comes from having a second person to look out for at all times. During a gameplay demo, game director Patrick Redding explained that players might recognize “echoes” of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory gameplay. However, the experience is more the result of everything Ubisoft learned from the Splinter Cell series — up to and including that little identity crisis the game suffered between 2007 and 2009. Development on the multiplayer began in that time period, approximately two years ago, and what grew out of it is a story-heavy “prologue” meant to be played by two people cooperatively. From there, the rest of the multiplayer just sort of fell into place. What Is It? Splinter Cell: Conviction is a stealth action game starring Sam Fisher, a National Security Agency operative who may or may not be on the lam in this installment. Fisher doesn’t figure directly into the main multiplayer mode — but two operatives (one from Fisher’s agency and one from its Russian counterpart) engage in about six hours’ worth of black ops work that sets up the story Fisher follows in the main campaign. In total, the game has five multiplayer modes, four of which being separate from the main campaign. You can find out more about Prologue mode by reading on below — but here’s what we know about the special “deniable ops” multiplayer modes: —Hunter is for one to two players to go in and stealth kill everybody they find. —Infiltration is a “pure” stealth mode for one to two players where the second you’re spotted, you lose. —Last Stand is a survival mode where one to two players have to protect a warhead within a level from a group of AI that want to set it off. —Face Off throws out co-op and pits two players against both each other and a lot of hostile AI within a level. What We Saw I teamed up with Jose Sanchez from Electric Playground on a couple of Xbox 360s for my playthrough of the first Prologue level. I think Jose wound up being the Russian while I played the American. On this mission, we were tasked with getting into some facility or another in Siberia (although we were told the campaign isn’t set in Siberia because it’d be “weird” for multiplayer participants to encounter Sam Fisher on their mission) — and making this dude open some sort of door. The whole thing went by in about half an hour for me and Jose — but I think we were doing exceptionally well for noobs. How Far Along Is It? Still sort of early days. The framework is there, but there are some kinks to work out like this one crazy bug that doesn’t let you complete the mission. Also, they apparently were unaware that a placeholder idle animation had been left in the game — so we were treated to a surprise when we came upon idle Russian guards dancing. I hope you’ll write in to Ubisoft and plead with them to leave this in on account of it being hilarious. What Needs Improvement? Sonar Goggles Aren’t Night Vision Goggles: Jose is willing to bet money that Sam Fisher’s trademark night vision goggles with make it into the game, yet. But for now, all anybody has seen (and gets to play with) are these sonar goggles that let you see the gameplay environment I guess the way a dolphin would. I’m not a fan because it turns everything gray. This gives me a false sense of security because when you’re in cover, the world is sort of gray — and when you’re out of cover, everything is in color. So if I’m wearing my goggles, I sometimes forget that that doesn’t mean I’m in cover, and then the Russians shoot at me and oy… Don’t Leave Me!: You do not want to play this game with people who can’t communicate. Often times, you’ll need to coordinate your assassinations or attacks perfectly or else one player will wind up shot to shit while the other player gets stranded in some distant part of the level. For example, there was a choke point on the map where I was supposed to shoot one guard while Jose grabbed the other guard to make him use his keycard to deactivate a security gate. I kind of shot the security guard he was holding and then went through the gate and shot the other guy — which made a bunch of Russians show up to shoot Jose because I was already long gone by the time they got there. I think if Jose had said something ahead of time, none of that would’ve happened — but it also would have been nice for there to be some kind of non-verbal communication in the game reminding me not to be a jerk. SPOILER WARNING Torture Team-Ups: When you get to the guy, you have to beat him up three times to make him cooperate. You can take turns with your partner beating the guy up. This very closely resembles a gang bang and I was pretty uncomfortable — so I let Jose bash the dude’s head into a printer and a desk while I watched the door. END SPOILER WARNING What Should Stay The Same? Complex Concepts: Sure, I’ve played co-op with people before; but always in situations where I knew I could carry them if they turned out to be dead weight. Never have I been in a position where I simply can’t do it without my buddy. And I’m not talking about getting a game over screen when they die — I really mean that the level would be too hard to go it alone. In particular, the mark-sharing mechanism really reinforces the buddy system. Jose would run ahead, climb a little half wall (because I guess they can’t afford real walls in Russia) and mark a bunch of people walking by. I’d wait in a dark corner down the hall and when the marked men got to me, I could activate the quick assassinate mode and then run down the hallway to join Jose. There is also that revival mechanism, but I consider that standard buddy system gameplay. Branching Paths: There are points where you have to go a certain way in the mission we were playing on — but every so often there would be open areas that presented options for how to progress. For example, there was one place where we didn’t have to shoot anybody at all. Jose could go along the ceiling panels and I could cut right and (using his verbal communication) know when the guard in my area was looking elsewhere so I could book it past him without killing him. I wound up doing it anyway, because I accidentally hit the trigger button instead of the slide-into-cover button, but it’s nice to have options. To The Rescue! There’s a cool thing where a bad guy can grab your partner in a choke hold. You’ve got a limited time to reach him and once you do, you have to make the difficult decision about whether or not to shoot the baddie and risk hitting your partner. Or get your partner to throw an elbow and then shoot the baddie as he’s doubled over in pain. Decisions, decisions! Final Thoughts I wish I could’ve followed the plot more assiduously, but I spent way too much time trying not to die.

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Splinter Cell: Conviction Multiplayer Preview: Separation Anxiety Times Two [Preview]

Splinter Cell Conviction CE Is More Statuesque In EMEA [Ubisoft]

Ubisoft has already laid out its plans for a collector’s edition version of Splinter Cell Conviction here in North America. But other territories will get their own higher priced version, complete with wee Sam Fisher. Splinter Cell Conviction’s collectors edition variant for “all European, Middle Eastern, Asian and Pacific territories” will contain the following, including an exclusive gameplay mode. – An exclusive Sam Fisher statue – Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game in unique SteelBook™ case – Infiltration Mode : Eliminate all hostiles in the mission area without being detected – A special playable skin: Shadow Armor – Early access to 3 weapons: SC300, SR2 and MP5 – The official Splinter Cell Conviction Soundtrack (more than 17 tracks) That applies to both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game, due to hit the territories listed above on or about February 26.

Originally posted here:
Splinter Cell Conviction CE Is More Statuesque In EMEA [Ubisoft]

Beat A Man Into A Urinal, Consider Buying Deodorant [In-game Advertising]

I think I can tell when ad people are joking. I tested that skill recently at an in-game advertising event. The people from Take Two saying a BioShock Big Daddy would be a great pitchman for Black and Decker? Joking. The Ubisoft guy who preceded them? Maybe joking. He was talking about smashing people into urinals in next February’s Splinter Cell: Conviction. He was getting big laughs when he set up one of the game’s interactive interrogation scenes by saying, “You might have several moments in the game [when] it’s like a choose your own adventure, but it’s choose your own torture.” Chuckling and guffawing from the crowd. He was showing Sam Fisher bashing a guy into a urinal and noting that there was a deodorant ad next to that urinal. “You will see a deodorant ad,” he said. You will be bashing a bad guy into porcelain. And you will wonder, he said — joking? — “Is that the new Degree deodorant I want to buy?” More laughter. And his kicker: “It’s going to be very effective.” Credit the man, Jeffrey Dickstein, head of digital advertising at Ubisoft, for getting a reaction from a crowd of ad buyers. They were gathered in midtown Manhattan at a Lincoln Center theater space usually used for jazz performances. This wasn’t the most game-savvy crowd, though they were there to be coaxed into buying ads for placement in the video games supporting Massive’s in-game ad network. The buyers didn’t seem to get the Big Daddy joke. They chuckled when descriptive ESRB ratings warnings appeared on a big screen, as if they’d never seen them before. This was the second “Upfront” hosted by Massive, an attempt at an annual event. I’ve attended both and look forward to, I guess, the fifth or sixth one. In theory, they’ll get really good if they follow the model of more established media. Upfronts for TV networks sound like wondrous things. NBC shows off its fall line-up to advertisers and does everything it can to dazzle its audience of prospective advertisers. They bring their stars on the stage. Maybe Conan O’Brien or Jay Leno does a stand-up routine . Video games? Not quite there with the upfront yet. We’re past the awkward first one from last December, when an Activision representative stood up at this press-invited event and blabbed the existence of Modern Warfare 2 and a new hands-free Tony Hawk. At the second one, held earlier this month, the messaging was more disciplined. Straight-laced, you could say. As in when Dave Anderson, head of business development at Activision, talked about ad placement opportunities in Guitar Hero, described how new ad-showcasing camera angles were introduced into this year’s DJ Hero, and mentioned something we may not have mentioned here on Kotaku yet, that Tony Hawk Ride is primarily targeted at 10-14 year-old boys. He also said that “I’ve wanted to be here since I was a small boy,” assumedly referring to the jazz hall at Lincoln Center we were in, which was opened five years ago. Joking? The Take Two people were the most entertaining. They threw free t-shirts to the seated ad folks. They aired a mock ESPN segment that showcased ad placement opportunities in the virtual arenas and fields of 2K Sports’ hockey, basketball and baseball franchises. Their segment ended with the BioShock joke, which went over the heads of most of the people there. The Massive folks, affected as they may be by some department cuts this year , can still cite some strong numbers. They’ve served 1000 ad campaigns in the last year and a half, an executive announced at the presentation. Massive research indicates that 63% of gamers recall the ads they’ve seen in games, a number Massive says is on the rise. People see in-game ads, and they send text messages the numbers the ads encourage them to. They visit product websites. They buy cars. Massive is selling packages to these ad buyers. Advertise in the biggest games that third-party publishers have allowed to be in the Massive in-game-ad network. Or just advertise in the sports ones. Or be the only advertiser in an entire genre category. Or take over the entire Massive network for a day. The Massive people and the game publisher people mostly say things that wouldn’t horrify gamers. Even at a conference like this, in-game advertising doesn’t sound like the mood-killer gamers have been wry that it could become. The THQ exec talks about putting ads on the mat of a virtual UFC ring. The Blizzard person talks about keeping ads out of that company’s games, relegating them to surrounding websites, log-in pages and the like. Our Ubisoft man explains how the Splinter Cell team has generated heat maps to determine where players look in a level, and ensured that ad-placement locations are situated in those lines of sight — which might sound potentially irritating, but he’s the one talking about making advertising in games as innovative as gameplay. And he’s the one talking about selling deodorant to players as they make a bad guy tumble into a urinal. Or was that part a joke?

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Beat A Man Into A Urinal, Consider Buying Deodorant [In-game Advertising]

A More Advanced Look At Splinter Cell Conviction [Clips]

You’ve read Totilo’s hands-on with Splinter Cell Conviction from the Tokyo Game Show; now watch game designer Dean Evans walk us through the level, showing off the game’s innovative new features. This is the same mission Totilo played through at TGS earlier this year, only this time around they’ve got Ubisoft developers playing the game, so they didn’t need to turn off God Mode. I actually understand where Stephen was coming from though. My first instinct when given a gun and a bunch of guards is to run in and shoot them all before they shoot me. It generally takes me at least an hour to slip myself into the stealth mindset required to guide Sam through his missions, and I definitely have to be in a stealthy sort of mood or it just doesn’t work. That having been said, Splinter Cell Conviction definitely has me in a stealthy sort of mood. Let’s hope it lasts until February.

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A More Advanced Look At Splinter Cell Conviction [Clips]

A More Advanced Look At Splinter Cell Conviction [Clips]

You’ve read Totilo’s hands-on with Splinter Cell Conviction from the Tokyo Game Show; now watch game designer Dean Evans walk us through the level, showing off the game’s innovative new features. This is the same mission Totilo played through at TGS earlier this year, only this time around they’ve got Ubisoft developers playing the game, so they didn’t need to turn off God Mode. I actually understand where Stephen was coming from though. My first instinct when given a gun and a bunch of guards is to run in and shoot them all before they shoot me. It generally takes me at least an hour to slip myself into the stealth mindset required to guide Sam through his missions, and I definitely have to be in a stealthy sort of mood or it just doesn’t work. That having been said, Splinter Cell Conviction definitely has me in a stealthy sort of mood. Let’s hope it lasts until February.

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A More Advanced Look At Splinter Cell Conviction [Clips]